Green Giant Pea Spill

Do you ever worry that the highway you’re on might be shut down because a giant Green Giant can has spilled peas across the road? And now, up ahead, you can see a couple of police cars have stopped traffic where the peas spilled over the highway. Someone has opened a can of Green Giant Peas in the land of the little people. (Or, some giant has opened a can of peas in the land of regular sized people). The giant peas have spilled over the two-land highway and two patrol cars have stopped traffic while the mess can be cleaned up.

This was one of the product dioramas I made with the Irish Spring diorama. The opened can has been sitting in the studio for a few months as I tried to figure out what to do with it. Originally, in the earlier Green Giant diorama, I envisioned that the Green Giant has escaped from the can of peas and his footprints are next to it. I planned on placing a lot of little people around the footprint. (After all, they had been sitting in their plastic bag in the shoebox in our studio. Worthless so far to the goals of the studio. It was time for their call to the set!) I received a package of little Z-scale cars in the mail a few days ago and had a foot piece of Z-scale highway leftover so it was time to try something with them. Creating footprints involved with the first Green Giant diorama seemed too much of a task. Besides, spilled peas coming from the can and blocking a highway seemed more interesting.

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Here, in Green Giant Pea Spill, a whimsical look at brands and consumer products. It’s in our products where much modern symbolism lurks in subtle, subliminal ways. (At times, symbols don’t just lurk but get right in your face.) Here, a type of cultural criticism employing images rather than words. This area seems ripe for a new genre of dioramas. Are there artists out there who will explore and develop this genre? Perhaps future cultural critics will employ images rather than words in their critiques?